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Slice into a hollow-centered Baumkuchen or "tree cake" at Lutz Cafe and Pastry Shop, 2458 W. Montrose, and you'll see it's not just the cake's three-foot stature that mimics the crown of a shrub.

The interior of the cake has rings similar to a tree trunk, evidence of a disappearing, labor-intensive technique of cooking the old-school German treat layer by layer on a spit.

"They used to cook this over an open fire - imagine a spit you would cook a pig on," says Eric Koncir, head pastry chef at Lutz.

Lutz is one of the few known bakeries in the United States to have a working Baumkuchen oven. The oven dates back to 1940s Berlin.

The cake, says Koncir, dates back to 1450.

An article in the New Yorker last year followed by a Food Network show in July featured Lutz and another Chicago shop, Sweet World Pastry, making the cakes with Baumkuchen machines. Sweet World, a Polish bakery at 5450 N. Milwaukee, refers to the cake as "sekacz."

Once just a treat at Christmastime, Baumkuchen orders skyrocketed after the Food Network episode, says Lutz owner Howard Gould. He figured - why limit them to the holidays-

He filled 200 orders within a few days after the show aired, and the orders haven't stopped coming in.

"We're not just getting individual orders, we're getting bakeries from the East Coast, Nebraska," asking for the cakes, he says.

While out-of-town business has been brisk, Gould says the reaction from neighborhood residents is just as interesting.

"I've had people come in and say, ‘I live around the corner, I thought you only made wedding cakes,' " Gould says.

About three times a week, Lutz fills orders for Baumkuchen, which uses a sponge cake batter. The finished cake is more dense like a pound cake and perfectly European - moist but not mushy, relying more on butter, vanilla and rum than sugar as flavoring.

The traditional Baumkuchen oven looks very much like an oversized gas grill with an automated spit or rotisserie.

While the machine does some of the work, a baker must keep watch over the 400-degree, natural gas-powered oven for the hour it takes to make the cake. The spit must be manually dipped into a trough of cake batter.

Each layer is baked for about two minutes before the next is added. After a dozen "dips," eight to 10 more layers are added, then "combed" with a peg-studded wooden tool about three feet long. This gives the cake its ridges.

At Lutz, the Baumkuchen is available in different sizes - even single servings. It comes covered in chocolate, a sugar glaze or plain. Prices range from $6.95 to $32.95, depending on the size.